A Guide to the - Rissho Kosei-kai

Adherents of Eastern religions‐‐and especially the Buddhists‐‐have long understood the value ofminimizing energy flow‐through. . . . The Eastern religions have long claimed that unnecessarydissipation of personal energy only adds to the confusion and disorder of the world. Ultimatetruth, according to Eastern doctrine, is arrived at only by becoming one with the world aroundyou. This can only be accomplished by entering into a unified relationship with the rest ofnature.Professor Rifkin says that in Japan, one of the world's most highly industrialized nations,Buddhism and Confucianism are the most influential philosophies. Japan therefore respects thelaw of entropy. He says that in the course of its remarkable economic development, Japan hasbeen the first country to deal effectively with the problems of pollution.The other law of thermodynamics, the law of energy, is that the total sum of the material andenergy in a given system is fixed, and cannot be spontaneously increased or diminished.Moreover, matter may change in form but not in substance. This is identical with the truth of"voidness" expounded by the Buddha. It can be found in the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings:"All laws [phenomena] were originally, will be, and are in themselves void in nature and form;they are neither great nor small, neither appearing nor disappearing." The Buddha expoundedthis more than 2,500 years ago, so we can see that in reality he was also a great scientist.Nevertheless, some Japanese still think of Buddhism as obsolete and irrelevant to the country'sprosperity. They ignore its teaching of the wisdom of being satisfied with little. Quite to thecontrary, this teaching has great significance for human survival. Now is the time for reaffirmingit.The wisdom of being satisfied with little is the key to both individual and human happiness.12